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Commissioners intervene to prevent Furness maternity transfer

11 February, 2013

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay has dropped plans to temporarily shut maternity and neonatal services in Furness after commissioners intervened to resolve its staffing crisis.

The troubled foundation trust had planned to transfer the special care baby unit and consultant-led maternity services at its Furness General Hospital to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary on 5 February, as previously reported by Nursing Times.

In a statement issued days before the planned transfer, the trust said the action was necessary while it worked to resolve staffing shortages caused by “unsustainable” levels of sickness absence.

The trust’s interim chair David Henshaw said it had seen a “marked increase” in sickness absence since the escalation of a police investigation focussed on the Furness maternity services.

But on the day of the planned transfer it announced that a “team effort” by the trust and the “wider NHS” had enabled it to source enough additional neonatal nurses to keep the services open in Furness.

Nigel Macguire, chief officer of Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, said his organisation had intervened alongside the North Lancashire clinical commissioners and the NHS Commissioning Board’s northern region office to resolve the staffing problems.

“As commissioners, we were taken by surprise by [Morecambe Bay’s] decision and we felt we needed to ensure continuity of services for the population of Furness,” he told Nursing Times’ sister title Health Service Journal.

“I think this was a good example of the NHS coming in to support an FT in difficulties,” he said.

Apparently no active recruitment in SCBU since 2009.Are the Trust really so surprised by staff shortages?Many regularly employed staff on the Bank would increase their input. Many Staff negotiations have occurred prior to the Trust's shocking and I'll thought out planned transdermal of services.

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